


I Can Keep You Warm

by stevesnosebump



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Boys In Love, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Dock Worker Bucky Barnes, Established Relationship, Fluff, Gift Giving, M/M, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Pre-War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:22:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28163121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stevesnosebump/pseuds/stevesnosebump
Summary: Money is tight this year, but Steve and Bucky still manage to have a good Christmas.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Comments: 11
Kudos: 45





	I Can Keep You Warm

**Author's Note:**

> just a quick short sweet fic. hope u enjoy! you know mama luvs herself some prewar stucky :) 
> 
> if the beginning of this fic was inspired by [this post](https://sunstarsteve.tumblr.com/post/635593084651110400/maybe-could-you-do-are-you-blushing-no-its) by laura...no it wasn't (yes it was)

Steve has always loved Christmastime. Not just because of the holiday dedicated entirely to gift-giving, but also because of the joy in the air, the cheery songs on the radio, and the abundance of hot cocoa and snow. 

Bucky loves all of that, too, but with how cold Brooklyn gets in December, this time of year scares him a bit. The cold weather tends to make Steve even sicker than he usually is, which is the perfect recipe for a damn near heart attack for Bucky every winter. 

He’s prepared this year, sets aside money from his salary for months until he has enough saved up to buy them a heater the second autumn hits and the temperature starts to dip. The purchase puts a dent in his wallet, and they both know that means money will be tight for a while. It sucks a little, knowing that Christmas is right around the corner but they’ll have to buy even cheaper gifts than they usually do, but it’s worth it to Bucky. Steve is always worth any sacrifice. 

In the early mornings and late evenings, they sit in front of the heater, sharing a blanket (Bucky lets Steve have most of the blanket, because he needs it more than Bucky does), while Steve draws and Bucky reads. It’s nice, doing their own thing but still sitting together, touching so the other’s presence is known. 

Bucky begins to look forward to that when he comes home from work, knows he can count on finding Steve sketching on the floor in front of their heater. That isn’t what he sees when he comes home today, though.

“Hey, Buck,” Steve greets without even looking up from his sketchbook. He’s sat cross-legged on the couch, with a blanket draped over his shoulders and another on his lap underneath the sketchbook. A mug of what he assumes is hot chocolate on the coffee table in front of the couch. 

“Hey,” he absently responds, looking around the room. The heater is still where it always is, so he’s a bit confused as to why it isn’t currently in use if Steve is clearly freezing. “Uh, is it broken?” he asks, motioning in the direction of the heater. 

“I guess. It wasn’t working when I tried to turn it on earlier.”

“Damn.”

“It’s fine,” Steve reassures him, practically able to hear the disappointment in Bucky’s voice. “We survived just fine without a heater.”

Bucky grunts in disapproval, which only makes Steve roll his eyes. “Buck, I’ll be  _ fine.  _ Seriously.” 

Bucky knows he’s right. They were just fine before they’d bought a heater. But he also knows that having the heater is much more comfortable, and makes him feel better about leaving Steve alone in the cold apartment for hours while he’s at work. He doesn’t rush home the way he used to, doesn’t make himself sick with the fear of something bad happening to Steve while he’s gone because of how cold it is. 

“I’m buying a new one.”

“With what money? Our rent money?” Steve asks the rhetorical question with a bit of a bite in his voice, but it’s fair. Bucky gets it. 

He won’t be able to buy a new heater anytime soon, that’s for sure. He hopes that he’ll be able to save enough money to buy a new one early on in the new year, but it’s unlikely that they’ll get one until February. 

“We’ll just have to save up for a while.” 

“Don’t we always?” He doesn’t say it with the bite that had been in his voice only a moment before. This time he says it as if it’s a simple fact, nothing personal behind it. 

“We sure do,” Bucky sighs, finally joining Steve on the couch. 

It’s difficult, having to work so hard but still never truly having enough money, but Bucky would rather be dirt poor with Steve by his side than filthy rich with anyone else. 

“I don’t love how much you’re shivering right now,” Bucky mutters, eyeing Steve struggling to sketch with a shivering body and freezing cold hands. 

“I’ll be alright. Let me take care of myself.” 

“Nope. I’ll go fix you a hot cocoa,” Bucky is on his way to the kitchen before Steve can even open his mouth to protest (not that protesting would’ve changed much. Bucky is always determined to take care of him. Steve is learning how to let him). 

“We’re gonna be sick of cocoa and tea by the time spring comes around,” Steve chuckles, setting his sketchbook and pencil down on the coffee table as he gratefully accepts the mug.

“I can keep you warm when that happens,” Bucky responds, sitting down next to Steve with his own mug in hand. “If you don’t get sick of me first.” 

Steve rolls his eyes, but his blush gives him away. “Could never get sick of you, jerk.” 

“Mm, prove it, punk,” he taunts. 

Steve rolls his eyes again (he can’t help it, with how adorable _stupid_ his boyfriend constantly is) before leaning forward to kiss Bucky’s lips. 

He can’t help but to let out an embarrassed groan when he opens his eyes again and sees the giant grin on Bucky’s face. They’ve been together for too long for Bucky to look so happy about a  _ kiss  _ and for Steve to be blushing so hard afterward, but here they are. 

They drink their hot chocolate together, Bucky positioning himself so he’s lying back but propped up against the armrest, with Steve lying on his chest as he picks up where he had left off in his sketchbook. 

“That’s beautiful,” Bucky comments, watching Steve finish up his sketch of a snow-covered street in Brooklyn. He recognizes it as one of the prettier areas of town, one they walk through without even trying to enter any of the stores filled with items they know they can’t afford.

“Yeah. That’s what it looked like this afternoon. There’s probably more snow by now.” 

“It’s almost like I’m there,” Bucky remarks in a near-whisper, eyes still glued to the drawing.

“You see the world in pencil sketches and eraser shavings?” Steve jokes, never knowing how to accept a compliment.

“Exactly,” they both laugh at that. “Seriously, though, you have a real talent,” Bucky tells him once they’ve quieted down again. 

The  _ “thanks”  _ Steve mumbles is nearly inaudible, but Bucky knows he means it. Steve draws for himself, not necessarily because he wants to be the next world-renowned artist (although that couldn’t hurt…), but he still sometimes finds it difficult to believe he’s any good at it. 

“You excited?” Bucky suddenly asks him, making Steve jump a bit since he’d gotten so lost in his sketch.

“For what?”

“For  _ what,”  _ Bucky scoffs at him. “Christmas!”

“Oh. Yeah. I’m excited.” 

“You don’t sound very excited.” 

I am! It’s just,” Steve lets out a long sigh. “Hate when you buy me presents with your hard-earned money. And you just spent all that money on a heater. I don’t need you to buy me anything.” 

“A heater that broke after a couple of weeks, Stevie. Besides,” he cuts Steve off before he can begin to argue. “Let  _ me  _ worry about how I spend my money. If I wanna spoil my sweetheart, I damn sure will.” 

Steve doesn’t even bother to dispute that. He knows that Bucky will go out of his way to make sure Steve is taken care of and happy, even if that means breaking his back working extra shifts down at the docks. 

“Okay, well,” Steve starts, getting up to take his and Bucky’s mugs into the kitchen. “Spoil me by staying home this year.”

The request is a reference to last year, when money was tight and Steve was so sick that it scared Bucky, so he picked up an extra shift on _Christmas_ at the last second. He feels bad about it still, wishes he had spent the day cuddled up with Steve, but at the time, it felt necessary. If he hadn’t picked up the extra shift, they wouldn’t have been able to afford Steve’s medicine. Bucky doesn’t know what would’ve happened if Steve hadn’t been able to take that medicine.

This year, though, Steve isn’t sick like he was last year. Sure, money is tighter than usual because of Bucky’s big heater purchase, but it’s still manageable. He’ll spend this Christmas at home with Steve.

“I will. Have to keep you warm, don’t I?”

“Right,” even though his back is turned, Bucky knows Steve is smiling as he says it. 

——— 

“Steve! Wake up,” Bucky excitedly shouts on Christmas morning, bouncing on their much too fragile bed.

Steve groans in response, just like he does every year on this day. He’s used to Bucky waking him up like this on Christmas and his birthday (and he secretly looks forward to it, too. Who could be mad about being woken up early when Bucky’s face lights up the room with so much unadulterated, childlike joy?), but he still reacts with the same loud groan and sluggish movements as he does every time it happens. 

“Come  _ on,”  _ he jumps out of bed when he sees that Steve is slowly preparing to get up. “It’s Christmas!”

“I know, I know. I’m up.” 

Bucky rushes Steve to the living room, always so eager to begin the day’s festivities that he puts off his usual morning routine until later, the same way a young child does in their haste to open presents. 

“Money’s tighter than usual this year, but,” Bucky starts, grabbing his present to Steve from under the tree. “I did manage to get you a little something,” he’s visibly shy now, such a contrast to his earlier upbeat mood that it takes Steve a second to even process his words. 

When he finally comprehends Bucky’s words, he accepts the gift and sits on the floor next to Bucky in front of the tree. He truly isn’t expecting much, especially since he knows how much money Bucky had spent on that damned heater, so what he sees when he unwraps his gift truly shocks him. 

“Buck, did you really…?” he stares at the unwrapped box in his hands. It’s an expensive art kit that came out a little over a year ago, the one Steve had practically drooled over when he saw it in a store but quickly threw out of his mind once he saw the price tag. 

“Yeah,” Bucky confirms, unable to fight the grin on his face or the slight blush working its way up his cheeks. “Been setting money aside since I saw the way you were eyeing it last year. It’s part of the reason why I’ve been working extra hard this year, but I think it was worth it.” 

Steve gently places the box on the floor next to him before practically lunging at Bucky, enveloping him in a tight hug with the strength of a man much bigger than him. “Thank you. I love it,” Steve tells him, voice muffled in Bucky’s neck.

“I love  _ you,”  _ Bucky counters, pressing a kiss to Steve’s hair. 

Steve lets out a huff of a laugh in response before pulling back from the embrace. “Okay, well, here’s your present,” he says as he grabs the other gift from under the tree. 

“Oh, you  _ didn’t,”  _ Bucky grins when he unwraps his gift and sees a shiny new pair of boxing gloves.

“Your old ones look so worn out,” he can’t even try to fight the grin covering his own face.

“How’d you even afford these?” 

“Sold a few of my drawings, did a few commissions...that kind of thing.” 

“Thank you, sunshine. I love it,” he leans in to give Steve a kiss on the cheek. 

“Is that all I get?” Steve practically whines in response.

“Oh you big baby,” Bucky laughs, but he gives in anyway and kisses Steve on the lips this time. 

When they separate, Steve smiles at his boyfriend like he’s the center of his entire universe, or like the moon that he can count on seeing in the sky every single night. He misses the similar look Bucky gives him as he’s busy collecting the trash from their gift wrap. 

“Gonna cook some breakfast,” Bucky tells him, finally getting up from the floor. “Pancakes sound good?” 

Steve hums in response as he throws the trash out and turns the radio on, smiling when he hears the joyful Christmas music fill their apartment. 

“Merry Christmas, Buck.” 

“Merry Christmas, Stevie. You having a good one so far?” 

“Mmhm,” he hums, wrapping his arms around Bucky’s torso the same way Bucky does when Steve is cooking. “We should cuddle after breakfast.” 

“We should cuddle all day. Wouldn’t want you to get too cold, seeing as how our heater is broken and all…”

“Right, doctor’s orders and all,” he giggles and gently closes his eyes and lets out a soft sigh as the smell of the batter cooking begins to fill their nostrils. 

It seems like such a simple way to spend a holiday, but this is the happiest the both of them have been in a long time. The presents were nice, but they both know that even if they hadn’t managed to save up the money for those gifts, they’d still be just as happy at the moment. They love spending time together, but unfortunately their time together has been limited due to how much Bucky has been working. None of that matters today, though—today they get to spend the whole day cuddled up in their cozy apartment, without any distractions or last minute shifts. Just the two of them and the Christmas music playing on the radio. 

They couldn’t be any happier. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> oh hey :) thanks for reading! hope you enjoyed :)


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